Keep the same zine title? Or use differant ones? Which do you prefer?

I've always thought that it was a good idea to keep the same zine title to establish familiarity. Zine people are usually less known for their names than their zine titles. Even when some of the big guns, like Al Burian when he put out stuff under a title other than his regular one, Burn Collector (was it Fabulous Disasters or something like that?) it seemed to get a lot less attention.

I always try to talk my friends into keeping a regular zine title for that reason. I'm sure there's some zines by people that I like to read that have went under the radar because I didn't know it was their writing. Hell, I've probably read plenty of reviews of these zines and not even known.

I must note, though, that right now, my zine is getting kind of awkward, though. Because I've started a sub-series, and I've started tagging it with my old title like this: "Eaves of Ass Presents: Promise & Theft" (Eaves is my old title). But I still think it's a good idea to associate it with my old zine. There's also a comforting personal familiarity there.

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I'm in favor of keeping the same title. If you decide to dramatically change the style or content of your zine to the point where you're not sure it will even appeal to your regular readers you should maybe change it, but in general I say keep it the same unless you have a really compelling reason not to.

Not zines, but Gilbert & Jaime Hernanndez do the comic LOVE & ROCKETS. They did 50 issues then decided to go their own way and they did their own seperate books for a while, but they just didn't sell as well so they went back to doing LOVE & ROCKETS. It doesn't make a lot of sense, but sometimes change just doesn't work.

Making your name more prominent before changing the zine name can shift the "brand" from the zine to you, leaving something more continuous even if the name of what you're doing changes. That could also be helpful if you ever want to do a one-off side project, or just something you want to keep separate.

So does that mean keeping the same name for a while like Cometbus and Al Burian did? Or just being super prolific with many titles like Sascha Dubrul or Chris Estey? I did a one-off collaboration called Night Terror and I don't think people first pick it up because it's associated with me but because of the subject matter and aesthetic. However, putting "Eaves of Ass" on something at least triggers them to something that's been around for a while. Maybe they read a review somewhere.

Dan C said:

Making your name more prominent before changing the zine name can shift the "brand" from the zine to you, leaving something more continuous even if the name of what you're doing changes. That could also be helpful if you ever want to do a one-off side project, or just something you want to keep separate.

To be honest, and admittedly this is coming from someone who is still fairly new to the zine scene, I much perfer one shot single titles to a whole series of issues. Reason being, if Im browsing etsy or something, looking for a zine to buy, and I see someone has Zine Title issues 1-10, and it looks interesting, how am I supposed to choose which one to buy? If I only want to buy a zine or two, and this title has a backlog of issues, its hard for me to choose which one to go with, especially if its a perzine that covers a wide range of topics so Id have to read ten different descriptions to find out what each issue is about.

So, usually, if theres lots of issues of a title, I will ignore it and buy a zine that either, only has its first issue out, or is a single shot title.

I' on the keep the same zine name boat. I've done 26 issues of my zine but I have also done one off that I deliberately named something else. it's not because the content is different, it's that I don't have to commit to making my normal print run. My zine really very from really personal stories and projects I have worked on to travel stories to women's health. I'm actually working on a cook zine now that has stories that go with the recipes. in the end though, it all depends on what the creator wants. I see all the zines I have done as creating my own narrative. I have grown and changed and so has my zine.

I pretty much agree with you and especially what you said about the "creating your own narrative" by keeping the title you open up yourself as a more complex person every time. Someone might not appreciate your cook zine that might like your travel story zine, but you have a bit of a franchise. And it still stands that a zine title has more legs than a pen name. If you do a differant title every time people that liked you work have a harder time keeping track and zines get lost in the shuffle. But if you stick with the same thing long enough, people know who you are and your name might stand alone. Actually, I think your name might be a good example of that, but certainly people like Cindy Crabb and Al Burian folks. Same title, then use a subtitle to make it stand apart.

Alex Wrekk said:

I' on the keep the same zine name boat. I've done 26 issues of my zine but I have also done one off that I deliberately named something else. it's not because the content is different, it's that I don't have to commit to making my normal print run. My zine really very from really personal stories and projects I have worked on to travel stories to women's health. I'm actually working on a cook zine now that has stories that go with the recipes. in the end though, it all depends on what the creator wants. I see all the zines I have done as creating my own narrative. I have grown and changed and so has my zine.

Ultimately, it's always up to the author, of course. But to me, keeping the title is the way to go. Even if the title doesn't 'make sense' any more, so what? It's YOUR zine, you can write about anything you want. You are the one who defines what your zine is.

I always, and will always, do the zine Proof I Exist. That's my main zine. Some issues are words, some are pictures, I mix it up to keep myself interested. But along with that, I am constantly doing one-shots on the side, for fun. You can have it both ways.

Keeping the same zine title also makes it easier for past readers to re connect.

My Dallas zine Musea (leading the art and media revolution including post-bands music) has had that name almost since its start in 1992 (18 years). It actually started as Muse News, but a piano teachers newsletter from Houston said they had that name, and I had to change - so I went to Musea and have stuck with it since.